On the web, you may find yourself unable to watch a movie, read some news or play a game, and you don’t understand why. Most of the time, that is because there are geographical restrictions. They are applied to a variety of content. It can be for financial reasons, due to content’s rights or even censorship. But buying a VPN will help you avoid all these constraints. Here is how it works.

Playing the Latest Games as they come out

When you are a fan of gaming, having to wait for the latest one to come out in your country, can be too much to bear. The solution is easy: Buy a VPN and choose a server from a country where the game is available. You may wonder what is a VPN and how does it work, if you have never heard about them before. This tool is used to mask your IP address by connecting you to a virtual server, in another country. That way, when you enter into a website, it will recognize you as being from that part of the world, instead of where you really are. Therefore, if the game is available in that given country, you will be able to access it, without having to wait weeks or months for it to be launched, in your region.

Why games are sometimes geo-restricted?

Most of the time, if a game is not accessible around the world at once, it has to do with distribution rights. Most game companies do not distribute their titles by themselves. Instead, they find distributors around the world and grant them licenses to do so, for a given region. Therefore, it can happen that some countries don’t have a distributor yet, which would explain why it is not available.
Those distributors often pay for the rights to distribute these games, especially the most popular titles. Therefore, they need to protect their investment, and the only way they can do so, is through geographical restrictions. Since a game is normally downloaded and not shipped physically, you can choose to do so anywhere in the world. Prices may vary from one country to another. So, if you are wise, you’ll find the less expensive one to buy from. With a VPN, you will be able to do so, providing that they accept your credit or bank card, of course.
Finally, it is possible that some countries don’t distribute a given game, for censorship reasons. It is sometimes the case for China, as the government decides what is acceptable or not, for people to buy, within their frontiers.